If you need a kidney transplant and have a family member is willing to donate one of his or her kidneys, but it cannot be done due to tissue or blood type incompatibilities, paired kidney exchange is the answer.
A paired kidney exchange, also known as a “kidney swap” occurs when a living kidney donor is incompatible with their recipient, but does match another person on the waitlist. Two live donor transplants would occur.
Suppose there were two donor/recipient pairs, Donor and Recipient no. 1 and Donor and Recipient no. 2:
- Donor 1 would give a kidney to Recipient 2.
- Donor 2 would then give a kidney to Recipient 1.
This kidney paired donation transplant enables two incompatible recipients to receive healthy, more compatible kidneys. All medically eligible donor/recipient pairs may participate in the paired kidney exchange program.
Paired Kidney Exchange Programs in India and Worldwide
There are many different ways these types of donations can occur. The most common way and legally practiced in India is when both donors donate on or around the same day; giving the other donor’s recipient their kidney as above diagram.
Worldwide there are many different models of doing paired kidney exchange with a common motto decreasing the waiting time of listed patients. These programs are still not practiced in India.
Never Ending Altruistic Donor (NEAD) Chain
A NEAD chain (Never Ending Altruistic Donor chain) begins with one non-directed (altruistic) potential donor. In this program, the non-directed donor gives to a person waiting for a transplant, and that recipient’s willing – but incompatible – donor gives to another person waiting, and so on.
Each living donor in this system gives to a stranger, and the chain of donors is kept going as long as possible.
In A NEAD™ chain, a non-directed potential donor is matched up with a recipient who has a willing, but incompatible kidney donor. Then that recipient’s incompatible kidney donor donates to another incompatible pair, and so on.
Remote Donation
This allows donors to donate organ closer to their home and their kidney is then sent to their recipient’s center to transplant.
Advanced Donation
This allows a donor to donate on their schedule; giving their recipient a voucher for another living donor kidney, when they’re ready for one.
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